Canadian Bitcoins Robbery

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Canadian Bitcoins

The Canadian Bitcoins office appears to have been visited by multiple individuals with handguns. Four employees were bound, and a fifth was unseen and called for police. Aside from one employee being hit over the head with a gun, there were no injuries and no funds were taken.

This exchange or platform is based in Canada, or the incident targeted people primarily in Canada.

About Canadian Bitcoins

"Canadian Bitcoins is a cryptocurrency brokerage allowing customers to buy or sell bitcoins, litecoins and other cryptocurrencies." "Fill out the BUY form on the Buy/Sell page. Specifying the amount of $CAD you wish to spend on Bitcoins/Crypto, and your wallet address that you want to receive the purchased crypto at. Choose your payment method, and follow the instructions that are emailed to you. When we receive the payment, we will deposit the Bitcoins/crypto to the provided wallet address." "Please note orders must still be approved manually on our side before any coins are sent, typically Mon-Fri 9-5." "We can currently only service Canadians, living in Canada."

“Three people entered the offices of Canadian Bitcoins in Ottawa carrying handguns and restrained four employees on Tuesday morning” “Ottawa police have arrested one suspect and are looking for two others after employees at a bitcoin financial institution were held up at gunpoint.” “[T]hey attempted to compel one of the employees to make an outbound transaction from the exchange.” “The attempted robbery happened on Concourse Gate off Colonnade Road just before 11 a.m., police said in a media release issued Wednesday.” “Three suspects entered the business armed with handguns, gained control over four employees and bound them, police said. One of the employees was struck on the head with a gun.” “A fifth employee, who remained unseen in an office, contacted police, and the suspects fled empty-handed.” “Arriving officers saw one of the suspects run into a ravine north of Colonnade Road, and "extensive resources" were deployed to find him, including tactical and K-9 unit officers.” “Police declined to name the business or describe it as anything more than a “Bitcoin related financial institution,” but an exchange called Canadian Bitcoins lists its physical address as being in the immediate area of the robbery, which was identified by police. A spokesperson for Canadian Bitcoins confirmed that their offices were targeted on Tuesday over email.” “Yesterday, there was an attempted robbery at our office in Ottawa,” the spokesperson wrote. “As police have mentioned, no one was seriously hurt during the incident, but one staff member did sustain minor injuries. Our focus is on supporting our staff at this time as well as working with the police in their investigation.” “The suspect was arrested later Wednesday "without incident," police said.” “Police arrested 19-year-old Jimmy St-Hilaire, and are now on the hunt for the two remaining suspects.” “The two suspects at large are described as black men. Police also want to talk to a “person of interest” who was inside the business when the suspects arrived.”

This exchange or platform is based in Canada, or the incident targeted people primarily in Canada.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Canadian Bitcoins Robbery

Date	Event	Description
January 1st, 2018 12:00:57 AM MST	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Total Amount Lost

No funds were lost.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

For better protection, funds should be stored in a multi-signature wallet with all keys held by different people and stored offline. It is never a good idea to have all signatories together in one place. If thieves wish to take funds, they will need cooperation of individuals who are offsite, and are certain to alert authorities.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.